Floating marker buoys are frequently used by fishermen, boaters, and others to mark specific locations on or below the water surface of a lake or river in order to remain at or near a particular location on the water body or to return to it. These locations include navigation routes, fishing areas, and submerged objects. The primary objective is to provide a highly visible, self-setting, floating marker that is anchored to the lake bottom and will not drift away from the designated location due to the action of wind, waves, or currents.
Presently available marker buoys usually provide a self-setting feature to limit the release of anchor line to only the length required to allow the anchor to reach the bottom of the water body. This eliminates slack in the line and the resulting drifting of the marker from its selected location. There are a number of marker types with different configurations, different means of releasing and retrieving line, and different means of preventing the release of excess anchor line. One commonly available marker type rotates about a horizontal longitudinal axis to release and rewind the anchor line. This marker type is often of a barbell or dumbbell configuration with the anchor line wound around a tubular rod integrally connected to a flotation sphere at each end thereof. Eccentric weights are provided inside of the flotation spheres to stop the rotation and the further release of line when the anchor reaches the bottom of the water body.
An example of this type is disclosed by Rovner in U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,085, issued on Apr. 4, 1972. These dumbbell shaped units don't provide much viewable surface area, especially when viewing the end of the unit. Because of their configuration and their use of eccentric weights, they float low in the water and are therefore not highly visible from significant distances. The user can easily loose sight of them in choppy water, dim light, or even during favorable viewing conditions. This frequently results in the user having to search in all directions to relocate the marker buoy. To counteract this problem, many fishermen assemble their own marker buoys using large plastic bottles tethered to anchors. These homemade markers are often cumbersome, but these larger units can be more easily located on the water surface.
The marker buoys that rotate about a horizontal axis are not well suited for use in combination with flags and aren't often used in combination with lights. When they are used with exterior mounted lights or flags, the lights or flags are exposed to the water during rotation. When used with interior mounted lights, they require access to the interior of the marker. The requisite small diameter of the line storage rod of a dumbbell shaped marker buoy results in a tedious and time consuming task to rewind the anchor line when retrieving the marker when the user decides to change locations or discontinue use. There are powered line winding devices available, but using them doesn't often make the process any simpler or easier.
The floating marker disclosed by Maertens in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,203, issued on Apr. 17, 1984, rotates about a horizontal axis while unwinding anchor line, then by taking on water ballast, it tilts to an upright position to engage the line-stop to prevent the release of excess anchor line. Some limitations are inherent in the operation of this marker. This marker has vanes to stop the rotation of the unit when the anchor reaches the bottom of the water body. It would be necessary that the provided vanes be quite large to effectively stop the rotational momentum in order to prevent the release of excess line after the anchor reaches the bottom of the water body. Another possible limitation is, if there is slack line when the marker is tossed onto the water surface, this slack line may contact the line-stop flange and immediately be engaged by one of the slots in the line stop flange, thus preventing sufficient release of anchor line to enable the anchor to reach the bottom of the water body. If this should occur, the user would be required to retrieve the marker and re-deploy it. Another limitation of this marker is that it could drift some distance during the period when the water is filling the ballast chamber to right the marker and bring the line-stop into effect. This marker is also limited in that it can only function in a clockwise direction of rotation during deployment. Also, in retrieving this marker, the ballast water would drain out of the marker, which could be messy or uncomfortable for the user, especially during cold weather.